One Pulse

Hear that drum?
Older than the borders

A woman lays her cloth out on the line
Sells to one side, the other ain't hers to cross
She can see the next town through the wire
Same songs, same salt, same loss
We dig the gold, then we buy it home
Pay the toll twice on what we already own
Her daughter hums the tune from over there
The drum don't need a visa for the air

They drew the map so we'd forget
One land they carved up into debt
Lift your head
Let the drum decide

One pulse (one pulse)
Same drum on both sides of the wire
One pulse (one pulse)
Carry it higher

One pulse (one blood)
One sky (one road)
Drum don't stop (don't stop)
One pulse

My brother learned the foreign tongue
Flew across the water to send a little home
The middleman takes his cut, the bank takes more
His sweat builds a tower on a foreign shore
Every Friday he calls from a crowded train
Asks about the harvest, asks about the rain
Mama plays his voice note for the goats and the hens
Then she beats the old drum, and the evening ends

One pulse (one pulse)
Same drum on both sides of the wire
One pulse (one pulse)
Carry it higher

Great Zimbabwe still stands in the stone
We cut those walls with hands we own
The nerve was ours this whole time
We just forgot the rhythm line

One pulse (one pulse)
The wire comes down on both sides
One pulse (one pulse)
Carry it higher

One people (one voice)
One pulse (one blood)
One sky (one road)
Drum don't stop (don't stop)
Drum don't stop